Attachment representation, mentalization, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies at school

Titolo Rivista RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA
Autori/Curatori Annalisa Valle, Davide Massaro, Teresa Rinaldi, Ilaria Castelli, Elisabetta Lombardi, Edoardo Alfredo Bracaglia, Francesca Sangiuliano Intra, Antonella Marchetti
Anno di pubblicazione 2019 Fascicolo 2019/1
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 20 P. 83-102 Dimensione file 220 KB
DOI 10.3280/RIP2019-001006
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The present work investigates the link between attachment relationships, mentalization, and emotional regulation in 10-year-olds children. The aim is to verify if children - teacher attachment relationship could influence children’s mentalization style and cognitive/emotional regulation strategies. For this pur-pose, 110 children were tested with the Separation Anxiety Test-School Version, the Mentalizing task and the kids’ version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The results show that Self-Reliance component of the attachment representation with teacher predicts both the negative scale of mentalization and the propensity to use the emotional regulation strategy of "Positive Refocusing". Likewise, the Avoidance scale and the Total scale of the Separation Anxiety Test-School Version also influence the use of the cognitive emotion regulation strategy "Putting into Perspective" and of "Positive Refocusing,- respectively. Results are discussed within the theoretical framework of multiple attachment theory, con-firming the hypothesis that affective relationships with professional caregivers - namely school teachers - play an important role in constructing self-representation and the abilities to regulate emotions in stressful situations.

Il presente lavoro indaga il legame tra relazione di attaccamento, mentalizza-zione e regolazione emotiva in bambini di dieci anni. In particolare, si intende ve-rificare se la rappresentazione dell’attaccamento con l’insegnante influenzi lo stile di mentalizzazione e le strategie cognitive di regolazione emotiva utilizzate dai bambini di questa età. A questo scopo, a 110 bambini sono stati somministra-ti il Separation Anxiety Test - versione scuola, il Mentalizing task e il CERQ -kids. I risultati mostrano che la componente di fiducia in sé della rappresentazione dell’attaccamento con l’insegnante predice sia il punteggio alla scala negativa della mentalizzazione, sia la propensione ad utilizzare la strategia di regolazione emotiva della "Rifocalizzazione positiva". Allo stesso modo, la scala di evita-mento e quella totale relative alla rappresentazione dell’attaccamento con l’insegnante influenzano l’utilizzo rispettivamente della strategia di regolazione emotiva della "Modifica della prospettiva" e della "Rifocalizzazione positiva". I risultati sono discussi alla luce della teoria degli attaccamenti multipli, a confer-ma dell’ipotesi che anche relazioni affettive con i caregiver professionali, quali gli/le insegnanti, giochino un ruolo importante nella costruzione della rappresen-tazione di sé e delle proprie abilità nel regolare le emozioni in situazioni stressanti.

Keywords:Attaccamento, stili di mentalizzazione, regolazione emoti-va, scuola, relazione bambino-insegnante.

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Annalisa Valle, Davide Massaro, Teresa Rinaldi, Ilaria Castelli, Elisabetta Lombardi, Edoardo Alfredo Bracaglia, Francesca Sangiuliano Intra, Antonella Marchetti, Attachment representation, mentalization, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies at school in "RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA " 1/2019, pp 83-102, DOI: 10.3280/RIP2019-001006